MWRA says Quabbin water is safe

Thursday

May 16, 2013 at 6:00 AMMay 16, 2013 at 11:15 AM

By Kim Ring TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

The water from the Quabbin Reservoir provided to 2.5 million residents is safe, officials from the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority said Wednesday, one day after seven people with ties to the Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Singapore were caught trespassing shortly after midnight on the watershed property.

While state police found no evidence that the seven allegedly committed anything more than trespassing, the MWRA performed extra, precautionary water testing Tuesday in addition to the constant tests that it runs. “All (the tests) came back normal. There is no evidence of any water quality issues at the Quabbin Reservoir following the trespassing incident,” the authority said in a news release.

The alleged trespassers, five men and two women, were found by Trooper Adam LeBlanc. At about 12:30 a.m. he noticed two vehicles parked off Route 9 near the middle gate in Ware, which leads to an area near the spillway and the Winsor Dam.

When he stopped to check on the vehicles, Trooper LeBlanc saw seven people walking back to the cars from inside the closed reservation. The FBI was notified and the suspects' backgrounds were thoroughly checked using various resources, state police said. The seven were released and will be summoned to court to face trespassing charges.

While the news of the alleged trespassers concerned some area residents, most wondered what they might have been doing and why. Because men allegedly told police they were educated chemical engineers, residents wondered why they wouldn't have noticed the large signs indicating the area is closed at night.

“It makes you think about the water,” Heather LaMothe of Ware said as she and her family walked at the reservoir Wednesday.

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, those in charge of water systems have been working to secure reservoirs.

The Worcester Department of Public Works and Parks has beefed up security in several ways since the attacks, according to Commissioner Robert L. Moylan Jr.

“We have manned patrols day and night, weekends and holidays,” he said. “The reservoirs are all signed No Trespassing.”

Barways were added and pumping stations are more secure than they were in 2001.

Sometimes, the Department of Homeland Security sends out advisories that offer information about incidents involving water supplies around the country, he said. The bulletins help water departments find new ways to secure their resources.

Still, while the recent incident has people thinking about the possibility of tainted water, it is possible for hackers to break into water supply computers and tamper with water supplies in other ways. In 2011 the website homelandsecuritynewswire.com reported that cyberattacks and a “simple tactic” called back pressure could also be used to tamper with water supplies. Many states have enacted regulations that require devices to prevent back pressure.

Concerns exist that damage to dams could be done to cause flooding and water supply problems. At Quabbin, poisoning the water would be very difficult.

“That's a 412 billion-gallon resource. It would take a tanker truck full of concentrated pesticides to contaminate the reservoir,” said state Sen. Stephen M. Brewer, D-Barre. He noted that the road over the dam and roads to critical intake areas have remained closed to motor vehicle traffic since Sept. 11, 2001. People need to know the state police barracks is “right there at the top of the dam” to safeguard those critical areas of the reservoir, he said.

Mr. Brewer said people who fish at Quabbin and in the nearby Swift River, along with sportsmen who use the reservoir area, have long been the public's “eyes and ears” are well aware of the need to notify authorities of suspicious activity.

“It's 118 miles of shoreline and 58,000 acres,” he said. “It's an enormous resource. You could not physically patrol that every minute of every day.”

He said that is why public access to the reservoir area for people who enjoy the natural scenery or use it for fishing or hunting enhances public safety.

State police and rangers from the state Department of Conservation and Recreation patrol the Quabbin, which has more than 100 miles of shoreline. Water from the Quabbin flows 25 miles to the Wachusett Reservoir and then on to Eastern Massachusetts. There are 46 communities, including a few in Western Massachusetts, that use water from the man-made reservoir.

State police said troopers are trained in homeland security matters at their academy and those assigned to the Belchertown barracks take very personally their responsibilities of protecting the reservoir.

“They have really embraced an ownership stake in the safety of the reservoir,” state police spokesman David Procopio said. “They are really engaged in that and deserve credit for that.”

The names of the alleged trespassers have not been released because they will likely not be formally charged until a clerk magistrate holds a show-cause hearing to determine whether the charges will be filed. That could be weeks away.

John Monahan of the Telegram & Gazette staff contributed to this report.

Contact Kim Ring at kring@telegram.com. Follow her on Twitter @kimmring